October 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group

[oneesotericgirl]

Since I was out for 2 weeks I will use my last recorded weigh in.
Last weight : 202
Today : 198 (down 4 lbs)

I don't like to use the phrase "fell off the wagon," because I practically jumped off a cliff. I was struggling really hard with emotional eating due to stress, personal disappointments, and a combination of school and work. I have also still be having some feet issues, which severely discourages any desire I have of exercising after working 13 hours on my feet.
Having said that, I am focusing on the things I can control more successfully, my eating habits. It is really astonishing how much better or worse I feel when I change my eating habits and what I eat. I can really physically feel the difference!

I decided to do a Mary's Mini to get back on track due to being stuck deep in the pleasure trap. I am on day 3 of 10, and I must say it is really a struggle sometimes. I find the food bland because I cut out added salt, and I find the food dry sometimes because of the lack of sauces allowed. However, I am pushing through and the scale has rewarded my efforts.
I chose potatoes as the starch for my Mary's Mini. Does anyone have suggestions of what worked for them when it came to flavoring food or making it less dry? I want to put corn or A1 on my potatoes, but corn is also a starch and no sauces except like ketchup/mustard sparingly, I believe.
Looking forward to continuing on this path of health.

[Kappagator_96]

Weight change: -0.4 lbs

Today: 145.3
Last week: 145.7

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Not every breakfast, but most days. Yes for lunch and dinner.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. YES
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. YES
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados,) YES
6. Eliminate any added oil. YES
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. YES
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). YES
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. YES.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. No, rolled my ankle last Friday a few hours after my weigh in. A week later, it is still bruised and painful, but healing.

Very pleased to finally record a loss after multiple weeks of weight gain, especially since I did not exercise due to injury. I really focused on staying compliant with food choices this week, so am proud of myself for being consistent. I’m going to look into recipes for a good preload soup this week. Hoping to find one that I don’t mind having before breakfast. I experimented with saving my 2 servings of fruit/day for dessert, instead of using it for my lunch and dinner preload. I think it helped keep me on track this week, so will continue this way.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

[Veganjo]

Friday 23, 2020

1.00 loss

[jan_npr]

Weight change DOWN 2.0 lbs

I forgot to post the last two weeks but good news is I'm down two pounds from October 9.

All going well on checklist except for always starting meal with soup, salad or fruit at lunch and dinner. But I am eating masses of vegetables.

Full disclosure, I started counting calories a few weeks ago. I think that is either a big no-no or strongly discouraged but I just needed to really see how the my high calorie snacking was hurting my weight loss. It also helped me realize that at my age and exercise level, I really need to eat a whole lot fewer calories than once upon a time. Not happy about that but I feel back on track. Could get more specific but I know we don't calorie count here so I certainly don't want to promote that. There was a time when all I had to do was eat a vegan diet and the weight fell off rapidly. I don't know how long I'll keep this up for, certainly not long term, but it has got me bulking up on non-starchies. I mostly eat the same foods from week to week so it hasn't been an onerous task.

Thanks to the moderators for the opportunity to be accountable here.

[JeffN]

Weight change DOWN 2.0 lbs

I forgot to post the last two weeks but good news is I'm down two pounds from October 9.

All going well on checklist except for always starting meal with soup, salad or fruit at lunch and dinner. But I am eating masses of vegetables.

Full disclosure, I started counting calories a few weeks ago. I think that is either a big no-no or strongly discouraged but I just needed to really see how the my high calorie snacking was hurting my weight loss. It also helped me realize that at my age and exercise level, I really need to eat a whole lot fewer calories than once upon a time. Not happy about that but I feel back on track. Could get more specific but I know we don't calorie count here so I certainly don't want to promote that. There was a time when all I had to do was eat a vegan diet and the weight fell off rapidly. I don't know how long I'll keep this up for, certainly not long term, but it has got me bulking up on non-starchies. I mostly eat the same foods from week to week so it hasn't been an onerous task.

Thanks to the moderators for the opportunity to be accountable here.

If you count calories and then find ways of reducing them, like reducing or cutting out high calorie snacks, you will lower your caloric intake and could lose weight. However, it doesn't address the hunger and satiety issues, which is the main factor in why most diets fail. Even the most recent follow up on The Biggest Loser showed the relapses were due to hunger.

The only way to reduce caloric intake and address hunger and maintaining (or increasing) satiety is to apply the principles of calorie density. Switching a high calorie snack to one lower in calorie density (not just calories) gives the best of all worlds.

If you have watched the DVD, I showed in several actual examples and studies then when you just address calories, you can cut calories any amount you want, but you also reduce satiety and increase hunger accordingly. This method will not last long as hunger will eventually win.

However, when the participants reduced their caloric intake by switching from high caloric (dense) foods to foods lower in calorie density (and higher in fiber/cal) they decreased their caloric intake by about 33% while increasing the weight/volume of food by 33%.

If you just look at calories, you won't be accounting for everything that changed. The only way you can see all of this is to analyze the change in calories but also the change in the weight, fiber, water and bulk of the food.

In Health
Jeff

[NancyNancyR]

Zero lbs. lost this week. Zero lbs. gained.

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Eliminate any added oil.
Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

I made soup again this week, this time it was 15 bean soup. Last week it was taco soup, which is still bean soup with 14 less beans. I was not 100% on the starting with a salad or soup. Some days I would have it and be full and some days I just didn’t want it at all, but I did want potatoes and veg. I don’t seem to tire of the potatoes. I only got real exercise in 3 days, but on each of those days I didn't exercise I clocked over 6,000 steps, just not necessarily all at once. So I guess I can say that I was not sedentary this week.
I still have cravings for salty and sweet, which is highly annoying. I have managed to not give in, but wow!

[CindyD]

Female, age 51, 5'8"
SW 7/6/20: 211.7
TO DATE: -45

Oct 16, 2020 169.5
Oct 23, 2020 166.7
Result: -2.8

All systems go on the 10 points!
I even cut back on the fancy balsamic to one tablespoon on broccoli, once a day. Something else that probably helps - and which may sound crazy! - is that I have taken to drinking the steamed broccoli water. Sometimes I steam mushrooms also and it's quite a nice broth! Chef AJ calls this pot liquor. People I have told have called me crazy but I like it, especially when it's cold outside. This also helps because I always felt I wasn't drinking enough water and now I don't worry about that. I usually steam broccoli twice a day these days (partly because my dogs eat some too).

Hello Mark and wildgoose and all! As always thank you so much for your time and wisdom! Have a good week everyone! It's quite rainy as I type this in the US midwest. Soup weather!

[Rebecka22]

195.2
-2 lbs from last week
-7.8 for October
This week I did better. I made my daughter cake and cookies and we had vegan ice cream and even though it was all vegan I skipped all of it and no one even seemed to notice, which was nice. I did pretty good on all the points this week. I’m still going strong with exercise and feel like I’m making the eat a fruit/salad/soup first and the 50/50 plate method into habits. One area I need to work on is having a prepared healthy snack for the afternoon. I haven’t given in to unhealthy things although I was very tempted, but I think I’m overeating at dinner because I’m so hungry by the time I get home and cook.

[curcubit]

Last week 199.8 This week: 202.0. Gained 2.2 pounds

I just returned last night from a 4 day road trip to Eastern WA (hiking, mushrooming, fishing). I knew it would be a challenge, as it literally is a food desert in many of the small towns we passed through. I came prepared with lots of apples, big ziplocks of carrot, celery, jicama and daikon sticks; also fixings for breakfast in the motels. I made all 4 breakfasts: overnights carrot cake oats (rolled oats, water, shredded carrot, chopped apple and pumpkin pie spice) two nights and when we had a little kitchenette: microwaved potatoes with wilted spinach and homemade salt free salsa.

I preloaded with crudite before eating take out. Very limited choices: most places we found ourselves for lunch and dinner were Mexican, bar/pub food, or take out pizza. Even telling counter staff while ordering: no added oil, sour cream, cheese, guac…on two occasions my “veggie” burritos had some or all of these things. And with Covid, no salad bars anymore. I really feel for people who travel for work.

I knew it would be bad…but thought all the hiking (did 5-7 miles worth every day) would offset indiscretions like flour tortillas, vegan pizza and extra sodium. I actually was 198 before I left on the trip, so was heading in the right direction.

I actually was pretty disgusted with the food in these places. How many burger places do you need in a town of 1,200 people?

I made a big pot of borscht last night: beets, celery, onion, carrot, fennel. I am going to the Asian grocery store today to stock up on purple yams, bok choy, Napa cabbage, etc. Happy to be back in the land of lotsa veggie options and my own kitchen!

[chowbby]

This is my third Friday weigh-in: -4.2 pounds this week!

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes, unless the meal contains fruit or is a soup or salad.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. Yes, but had I had no dessert.
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. Yes.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). Yes.
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). Yes.
6. Eliminate any added oil. Yes.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. Yes.
8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). I am making progress here.
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself. Yes.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). I walked about 45 minutes each day, but not all of it is brisk walking.

I have been "most doing it" for most of the year, but I was never consistent. I would break up with the program on the weekend, until three weeks ago. I told myself that I just needed to follow all the guidelines consistently and repeatedly without exception and trust it. I did not follow every single point, but I tried and it paid off!

Four nights this week, we enjoyed a celebration worthy platter of roasted vegetables—potatoes, delicata squash, brussel sprouts, mushroom caps, peppers, sweet white onions, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes—it was divine!! I think I could eat it every night for dinner. We also ate Longevity Soup daily, but left the beans to the side so it could be enjoyed either as a complete meal or a very nutritionally dense, but not calorically dense snack throughout the day.

[connielovesdogs]

Gained .9
Current weight: 174.2
Previous Weight: 173.3

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. Yes
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Yes
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. YES
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). YES
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados,) No-had another week in which I ate three non-MWL meals out and one of them had avocado.
6. Eliminate any added oil. No-two meals had oil.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. No, one meal had a large tortilla
8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). No, drank ginger ale several times this week
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. No, I got too hungry on several days, which most likely contributed to feeling deprived and eating take out.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily. Yes. I started some minor weighlifting (10 lb weights) three times this week. I also took daily walks.

Areas of success: For the first time in a long time I actually made it over a week without succumbing to the Starbucks soy latte monster (I don't even like them anymore, but they have been a habit when I needed a "treat"). I actually had a detailed dream last night about going and getting an even more sugary drink at Starbucks. Even though I ate take out, I didn't stuff myself when I did it, so that's something. I ate MWL 85% of the time.

Challenges: I ate MWL 85% of the time (it helps to write it out that way, because it shows me how much each of those three meals impacted what I was doing and showed up on the scale). I have really been struggling this week and not feeling as invested in my commitment. I'm not sure why, and I'm trying to figure it out-some sources of stress include my workload, the return of summer (Texas, y'all-it's the worst! but supposedly a "cold" front is coming in today; we will definitely move to cooler climes when I can retire in a few years), and the political climate/election. I am very grateful for so many things in my life, including employment, health, husband, friends, and pets (not necessarily in that order). I also struggle some times with depression and anxiety. Exercise definitely helps, as does consistent sleep.

Onward! As always, I'm thankful for this forum, the moderators, and all the people sharing of themselves. Connie

[squealcat]

I was out of town last week so did not post but when I came back I caught up on my reading here on this discussion board.
Well, here is my report.

October 9: 202.9
October 23: 204.1
That is a gain of 1.2 pounds

As I look at my weekly tracker I see that I did really well on numbers 1,2,3,4,6,8,10.
My challenges were #5 eliminating high fat food and 7 eliminating high calorie dense foods. Along with that is #9 eating when hungry stopping when full. When the cravings hit I get into bread and peanut butter and margarine. We have very few "treats" in the house so these things are left as my husband uses them. I can stay away easily until I get cravings and then give into them and I can eat a LOT of bread with that "stuff" on it in a short time.

This week I just need to start making peanut butter and margarine on my never list forever. A long time ago I did that with alcohol and I have not had a problem since. I am pretty sure I can do that with these bread toppings. I don't want to put bread in that "forever" category because I want to be able to use it once in a while after getting down to a good weight. Plain bread does not appeal to me as it is the things I put on it that make it enjoyable. So bread is on my "no list" temporarily and peanut butter and margarine are for my husband and not me.

As it gets colder here is Michigan I am faced with an exercise dilema. Today it was pouring rain and I walked anyway but only a mile . I think it will be better much later so I will see if I can get outside again. Not sure I will be going to the gym this winter so I may try out the many free things on the computer. I just don't want to lose my craving for walking. I now get an uneasy feeling when i cannot get out for my walk. Will see about that !

I wish everyone well and thank you for your support ! I feel that if I keep on showing up that I will get to where I want to be.

-squealcat (Marilyn)

[Hope410]

Hello Everyone,

Weight change: -2.6 LBS

Points: 1-6, 8-9 all 100%.

Points: 7 and 10 were not. Had a few slices of bread and popcorn twice this week. Shooting for 100% for next week. Again exercise was difficult for me. Only walked for 30 minutes 1X, although I was more active; cleaning the yard, stacking firewood and not sitting too long at a time by finding little chores to do around the house.

So, my main focus will be working exercise into my day, perhaps looking for an exercise video online. I will miss walking outdoors as the weather here in northern Wisconsin has turned into early winter already.

Have a great week everyone.

[rlechols]

Last week's weight: 141.5 lbs
This week's weight: 141.5 lbs
Loss of 0 lbs

I had another good week. My weeks all seem the same now. My diet is pretty well ingrained in my new lifestyle and so is my exercise habit. I do believe I have hit an equilibrium. I have reflected this week, after almost 10 full months of reporting my weekly weight here on the weight loss forum, and losing 30 lbs in 2020, and 50 lbs in 2019, and realized it is time for me to let go of this forum and branch out on my own. I am so grateful that the MWL program helped me get down to a normal weight. After losing 80 lbs total, I am down to the weight (or a little less) that I was at when I got pregnant with my first child, 26 years ago. I have never achieved that in all these years, and the few times I got close (within 10-15 lbs) I could not sustain it, because it involved excessive exercising, deprivation, and hunger. I feel very confident I will not regain the weight this time. I love eating this way and I feel no deprivation.

I would like to thank Dr. McDougall and his programs for helping people, and for helping ME. Thank you Mark, for your unending patience and help, and your encouragement on this forum. It has helped me tremendously!

Good luck to everyone on this forum. Keep with it and you will achieve your goals. You are worth it and you can do it!

Signing off! I hope I won't be back, if you know what I mean

Rachel

[laura_delao]

Oct 9 weight: 134.2
Oct 16 weight: 133.0 Lost 1.2 lbs
Current weight: 133.2 Gained .2

I was out of town last week and missed reporting on time. Due to not having signal I ended reporting late, or so I thought, I remember reading the message "posted successfully" and yet it didn't show up. In spite of the gain is still a loss from two weeks ago.

1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. - Except for breakfast. I've had leftover soup a couple of days and it has been great.

2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. - No problems here

3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. - No problems here. Hot sauce does the trick for me.

4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). - Non food item at this point

5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). - No problem

6. Eliminate any added oil. - No problem


7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. - This used to be my downfall but with all the feedback here I've eliminated them

8. Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). - No more green smoothies for me

9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself. - Having soup in the refrigerator all the time helps to take care of this

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). - Going to the gym three times a week. According to their machine, since July I have had a reduction in fat.

It's amazing to realize when I go shopping all the items that I used to buy in the past, even when I thought I was eating healthy. Now when I go by them I think "I choose not to buy it" and walk away. No bread, no popcorn, no crackers, the occasional beer, avocado, peanuts, dry cereal...no wonder I couldn't keep losing weight.

Wishing everyone a good "loss" week.